Far too few CEOs regularly think about IT on a habitual basis, and especially as something that is potentially integrated into everything their companies do and could do. This is however, not at all surprising, there is a general lack of time for any CEO to be always actively involved with what IT does and they will generally have some degree of misunderstanding of both the historic roles and the relative successes and failures of IT.

So, the truth is out on the streets again. A recognition that many IT projects still fail miserably to deliver business value, that many IT organizations are at best ineffectual and that many businesses inevitably suffer from the repeated application of undesired and mediocre IT practices.

The continued feebleness and intermittent malaise which is reflected throughout the rich panoply we call Information Technology means that businesses miss opportunities, teams miss deadlines and management waste resources and people’s talent and effort – not to mention the devastating impact it has on staff morale.

IT failure is indeed avoidable, yet simple and necessary practices in IT projects and in IT organizations are time and time again given scant attention or are simply ignored. IT can make a difference for a business, even if it just makes life in a business much easier for everyone who works there. Currently IT has been vastly more of a disappointment than a blessing. From experience, I am convinced that IT can be changed to become a value-adding element in business, I am also convinced that effective change cannot be a question of just changing labels and moving some people around. Change has to come in vision, structure and process – this will initially push IT organizations further down the path of short-term alienation (if they are not already there) but will also bring about an era of enlightenment in IT in business. So whatever may be the harsh reality of short-term change will be more than compensated for by rapid mid-term success and deeply-seated long-term acceptability.

Anyone in the position of CEO who is satisfied with IT in their organization is either very fortunate to have a very professional IT team or is a palpable fool. There have been so many more bad cases of IT than good that it would tend to indicate that satisfaction with IT is either thanks to a very capable team, a question of lucky or can be frequently ascribed to mutual ignorance.

The reasons why IT projects and organizations fail are many and varied. The reason why many a CEO has not tried to fix the problems are not so numerous: it’s mostly a question of time, time or time. One other key reason is the lack of a substantial body of knowledge that would help a CEO get to grips with the issues rapidly and be in a position to order the implementation of an organization change program to change the face of IT in the business.

If you think that many aspects of IT in your organization sucks then this book will help you to turn things around. It will help you to approach these problems because the time factor will be dramatically reduced and it will also provide a core body of knowledge to help avoid reinventing proven practices.